Development Notes

Monday, May 21, 2012

Environmental learning through touchpoints & themes

Physical activity in the Demonstration Gardens supports language acquisition that situates Environmental Learning as a fundamental cognitive discipline. I see it at all ages and stages of life, among people who are neuro-typical or autistic and among those acquiring fluency in a second language.
Similarly shadow puppets in representing interior realities gives a glimmer of where grammar, that is structure, comes from.
I'd like to be able to demonstrate this. Its not enough to share what I see but must be connected with others' experiences as evidence.
What frameworks can I use? Linguistics, environmental studies, neurology, architecture?
My friend Carmela reminds me that people deserve concrete experience, require it for that Aha moment.
Maybe this is more important than analysis. D'uh, certainly until its built, functional and can be tested and iterated.
So for now I focus upon structuring and situating experience.
Who are the learners, the facilitators, the community for the Demonstration Gardens?
To integrate virtual experiences and physical channels there need to be 'touchpoints' that are structured and managed so information flows easily. Focus upon the interaction sequence of:
- entranement
- contribution
- exchange
governs how to organize touchpoints.
Spreadsheet of Touchpoints:
http://tinyurl.com/bptdxpf
Themes are vehicles for ideas that can be threaded through the whole system so that participants can grok it from their own viewpoint.
2009-10 Meditteranean Biome
2010- 11 Permaculture
2011-12 Abundance